Former ISIS teen fighter says its better to eat dirt than join ISIS

After ISIS took over his territory in Syria, 17-year-old Ibn Mesud* joined the Cubs of the Caliphate and was heavily pressured into taking a suicide mission — told his death would be painless and he would go straight to paradise.

A shocking new video, “The Glorious Martyrs of the Islamic State,” is based on an interview with Mesud in Turkey by the International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism (ICSVE).

“They took over our area,” Mesud recounts on the video. “They called for everyone to come to the mosques. They taught us about the Koran, about prayers and preached to us.”

Mesud admits he “was just a child…just a student.”

The ISIS fighters indoctrinated him and about 1500 other Syrian teens and pre-teens about ISIS, its “accomplishments” in Iraq, and about ISIS being “righteous.”

“We will take you to fight with us,” they told their young recruits.

Mesud’s father is disabled and unable to work. Faced with the prospect of quitting school to financially support his brothers and sisters, he decided to accept the money offered to join ISIS.

At the outset, the young Cubs of the Caliphate pledged their allegiance to the sheikh and committed to fight for the Islamic State.